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Principles of Construction
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our thanks are extended to Sabine Kühnast for her competent support of our work.
Thanks are due to Pieter Moerland as well for his comments and to the research student
Christian Wedi for generating the drawings.
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conte nts
Appendix
125 | Selected Bibliography
129 | Authors
130 | Index
133 | Illustration Credits
1 | Introduction
Building with prefabricated systems encompasses the production and use of pre-
planned components or modules as a solution to build with higher quality and more
efficiency. It is associated with dimensional grids, high technical standards, lower costs
and the repetition of components or objects. Today, almost every science and industry
is systemised, and the building industry is not an exception, but rather a late bloomer.
Building systems are used to simplify complex planning and constructional process-
es. Their special character lies in the fact that they are not related to any specific build-
ing task but can be applied as universal solutions. System building is often referred to
as prefabricated systems because of the industrial nature of construction production.
Many building systems consist of manufactured components and use industrial meth-
ods of assembly, even when constructed on site.
Terminology
The term system building must also be seen in the context of a time horizon. The first
systematisations applied to the smallest units: bricks, which had been in use since
7500 BCE. Today’s system building is relevant to much larger and more complex com-
ponents.
The increasing complexity of systematisation is demonstrated by the term “module”
(modulus, Latin for measure). Whereas in earlier times, module described standardised
measurements or dimensions, such as the Japanese tatami mat or Le Corbusier’s mod-
ulor, the term today stands for standardised components of an overall system. And the
components can be further broken down into separate elements.
In the last century, visionary experiments in building systems enjoyed public atten-
tion, but the novelty of industrialisation wore off relatively quickly in architecture. The
mass production of standard components is thriving, and in some sectors, such as
housing, prefabrication of whole buildings is experiencing a slow restart.
A one-off product is still perceived as a handcrafted work of art, and the repetitive
industrialised house does not conjure up images of the beautiful home. Is it impossible
to create good architectural products and repeat them hundreds of times? Or is the
dream of high-quality, cost-effectively produced architecture purely an ideological posi-
tion that does not work in today’s world of individualists? Is the element of prefabrica-
tion reciprocal with the idea of non-permanence, or is there too much hesitance in ac-
quiring a high-tech product that is larger than an automobile and lasts for longer than
ten years?
This leads to the question of good vs. bad architecture. Does serial production lower
product value? Artists Andy Warhol and Dan Flavin based some of their works on the
notion of repetition of identical everyday objects (1). The series of otherwise simple
Campbell’s soup cans or the marching rhythm of fluorescent light tubes is the essence
of the artists’ works. Can a repetitive built environment (2) be planned intelligently and
provide the essence of architecture we are looking for? In the search for individuality
and corporate identity, does mass customisation suffice in architecture?
I NTRODUCTION 7
Building systems and prefabrication
Taking a step back to the roots of the matter to inquire about the systematisation of
architecture (4), we recognise that many architects and builders rely heavily on systems
because the demands of the scope of the projects and the expected time of delivery
cannot be met with traditional methods. Building systems include the production of
building elements, whether on or off site; the subcategory prefabrication includes all
systemised off-site manufacturing of components and elements (3). Among the bene-
fits of successfully using systems, including prefabrication, are quicker construction on
site, better ability to build to optimum cost and higher-quality end products due to
closer factory control as part of the manufacturing process.
From an architect’s point of view, the impact of prefabrication on architecture is
positive on the one hand, because the profession consistently involves more areas of
responsibility, and prefabrication allows a cumulative development of technical knowl-
edge: connections, details and technical standards. On the other hand, it has a nega-
tive image because it instigates a fear that intelligent thinking and creative architecture,
as well as the architectural profession itself, are becoming obsolete. From the clients’
point of view, building systems have a reputation ranging from low construction stan-
dards to high-end technology and are even ultimately considered fashionable.
System building is generally believed to be the opposite of on-site building because
the manufacturing takes place off site. It is not associated with anything organic: syste-
mised building usually connotes boxy, orthogonal shapes and strict grids. The style of
prefabricated systems scoffs at the sort of architecture that conjures the homemade
aura, or the vernacular (of a place), since the industry and industrialised products aspire
to speak a modern language (of a time). However, these generalisations are only partly
correct.
1 2
Fluorescent light installation, Menil Collection, Prefabricated houses in Middelburg, the Netherlands
Richmond Hall, Houston, Texas, Dan Flavin, 1996 The individual façade is not of high priority on this Dutch street.
The repetition of elements, like the colourful fluorescent light tubes The repetition of housing units unifies the street façade and
of this sculpture, constitutes a whole. A twin set bedecks the other demonstrates that the order of the repetitive built environment
side of the hall. is a strong virtue.
8 I NTRODUCTION
On-site methods of construction, for example, stick-built houses, are often thought to
be the slower, hand-made methods. In some cases, stick-built methods, have indeed
become more systemised, methodically and architecturally, than prefab products on the
market today. Some on-site building construction methods may be low-tech, but other
on-site building procedures that parallel advanced high-efficiency production methods
of the factory far exceed the production output of standard building procedures. Cases
in point are Quadrant Homes of USA and Toyota Homes of Japan. Business manage-
ment experts from the automobile industry who learned from each other overseas and
constantly oversaw self-improvement plans are responsible for these highly efficient
and successful building construction methods. Whereas Toyota Homes prefabricates
the house components in the factory, the American firm produces most of the homes on
site – and both produce stick-built homes at top speed and with admirable quality.
Clearly, system building does not necessarily take place off site.
I NTRODUCTION 9
Housing and industrial building
This book discusses two areas of construction that could hardly be more different:
residential and industrial building. These areas were selected because they already
have a particularly high degree of prefabrication and comprise a large proportion of
total building activity.
Several factors shape the housing market: there are private clients, who favour indi-
vidualisation but would still like to build cost-effectively and/or with a guarantee on
price. This segment covers, among other things, prefabricated housebuilding compa-
nies, which, for example, claim 14╃% of the market in Germany. On the other hand, real
estate companies design and develop whole new residential areas, where there is a
high demand for housing, such as in the Netherlands.
The industrial building category includes offices, commercial and industrial build-
ings, which have to fulfil a very wide range of different requirements. On the one hand
there is the inner-city office block, which has to meet the architectural and urban-plan-
ning requirements and accommodate complex building services. And on the other hand,
there are the factories and warehouses, which, because they are often erected on the
urban periphery, have to satisfy much reduced needs for architectural expression and
building services.
The architectural quality that can be achieved with preplanning and prefabrication
must therefore be considered with respect to the particular project. With prefabrication
can come loss of local typology, construction methods and materials. Other building
types, for example stadia, can profit from a high degree of prefabrication and, as the
contract sum is many times that of a single detached house, new designs can be devel-
oped exploring options for prefabrication and modularisation to form a project-specific
modular building system.
5 6
Soccer City Stadium, Johannesburg, Boogertman + Partners, 1987/2010 Soccer City Stadium, Johannesburg
2,100 modules, each consisting of 16 panels in various colours and surface finishes, create a Glass fibre-reinforced concrete façade modules
shape reminiscent of the African calabash. supplied by the German company Rieder were
used for the roof of the stadium, which was built
in 1987. Detailed view of installation.
10 I NTRODUCTION
Today, system-built products can even assume organic shapes (5, 6, 9). Moulding of
three-dimensional forms, calibrating movements and translating information for CNC
machines would not be possible without CAD systems. The Geodesic Dome (Richard
Buckminster Fuller, 1954), the undulating roof at Kansai airport (Renzo Piano, 1988–
1994) and the International Terminal at Waterloo Station (7) in London (Nicolas Grim-
shaw, 1990–1994) were seminal projects. Greg Lynn studied the animation of forms
using computer-generated models with his Embryological House in 1999. In this case,
a complex organic 3D grid system was created with CAD systems.
Finally, vernacular architecture, a term which conjures images of classical or tradi-
tional architecture, can have different stylistic consequences in the context of systems.
If vernacular architecture is understood as the architecture intrinsic to a place and to its
function, it can certainly be modified to meet today’s building standards of a house in
an industrialised, digitalised place for a changing nuclear family. The modified vernacu-
lar architecture, as demonstrated in Vorarlberg, in the western part of Austria, is a per-
fect example of this. Modern buildings are adapted to the needs of the modern family
and the requirement of energy efficiency, while still using local materials. The compact
and simple forms of the architecture are suitable for smaller families but blend into the
traditional context of a community previously characterised by agriculture (8).
Objectives
The objectives of this book are twofold: the main objective is to present to the young
practitioner the current status of prefabricated building by documenting the different
systems according to building typology and building components, thus systematically
weaving a picture of the world of prefabricated systems. The documentation is supple-
mented with photos and drawings setting a clear framework of creative processes. The
second objective is to discuss the following questions: do the architect’s aims of achiev-
I ntroduction 11
ing individuality and artistic expression suffer from the modularising, codifying and repeti-
tion associated with prefabricated or preassembled building systems? Or does the ar-
chitect gain flexibility in design as the building systems offer a high standard of quality?
Book organisation
Following this introduction, the chapter on the history of building systems highlights a few
exemplary moments in the long story of building systems. The included prefabricated
systems are not necessarily the most successful or ideologically the best examples of
system building. The failures and visions were as important as the commercial successes.
The chapters on housing and commercial or industrial buildings document examples
that delineate certain aspects, such as the different building construction methods. The
chapter on housing covers the basic construction types, the extent of prefabrication
and its implications on site and the issue of cultures, façades and their “cross-referenc-
ing” of styles. Commercial, or non-residential buildings, make up most of the built pre-
fabricated architecture. The building type is broken down into three categories: tempo-
rary buildings, serial buildings and individual buildings. Modular concepts, flexibility, and
construction methods are addressed here.
The fifth chapter, on the procedure of manufacturing a building, covers aspects con-
cerning the logistics of planning, production, transportation and the assembly of a build-
ing. The efficiency of the manufacturers, their productivity, adaptability to different needs
and standards are networked aspects of the building procedure. The aim is not to col-
lect the latest tips on production or operation and materials of the market, but to dis-
sect, display and analyse the matrix of methods and materials.
The chapter on components classifies the building’s tectonics – systems, subsys-
tems – and takes into account the developer’s point of view; each layer is a clear build-
ing part allocated to a contractor, such as the loadbearing structure or building services.
The final chapter opens a perspective on the future of prefabricated architecture.
We, the authors, hope to deliver a straightforward and informative collection of facts
on building systems and at the same time offer insight into typically non-tectonic issues
that form the systems in the first place.
8 9
Houses in Vorarlberg, Austria Design exhibition Entry 06, Essen, Germany, 2006
The modern form of industrialised architecture is a gradual Computer-generated organic forms bring a new dimension into
shift away from the vernacular. the field of prefabricated architecture.
12 I ntroduction
2 | History of Building Systems
What is the essential target of building systems? The systemisa- Early systems
tion of any building technology aims at producing more efficient The Mongolian yurt
and more cost-effective buildings than traditional methods. Sys- For over 2,000 years, nomadic tribes have been travelling in the
tems of building and the subsequent variety of architectural “Ge- steppe regions of Mongolia with their families and homes in the
stalt” took their cues from the cultures of peoples, the geogra- cyclic search for pastures to resource food and trade crafts. The
phy and its natural resources, technological advances and, yurts, the traditional homes of the Mongolians, are light, trans-
especially, the visions of architects and engineers. Thus, pin- portable and easily built (1). Made of pliable wooden worm fenc-
pointing the beginnings of building systems is quite challenging. es, woollen blankets, ropes made of yak- and horsehair and linen
Although developments in industrialisation, transportation and sheets, the yurts, also called gers, are raised and dismantled
communication have internationalised the building industry to within 60 minutes and can be transported by two or three cam-
some extent, significant differences remain between countries els. The round form provides the maximum area for the given
and their attitudes toward building systems. material, and the aerodynamic roof shape fends off the winds.
This chapter traces the history of building systems and its The woollen blankets provide thermal insulation against temper-
path of advancements in different contexts. The mobility, flexibil- atures that can reach –40 °C and the outer layer of linen pro-
ity, security and economy achieved by various building systems vides protection against rain (2). The weight and size limitations
are crucial to present-day better living and working conditions. of transportation by camel are clear practical criteria for the
At some moments in history, however, building systems offered building system of yurts.
the quickest, barely adequate shelters as a matter of survival.
The examples shown in this chapter illustrate that the develop-
ment of building systems did not only depend on the successes
– some were expensive failures that were nevertheless important
in the pursuit of architectural qualities and aspirations.
Mongolian yurt
The Mongolian yurts are conveniently compact for transport on camels yet
provide secure shelter and display traditional values. The nomads recamp
two to four times a year, so the efficient use of the steppe region resources
is a necessity.
Tatami house
This illustration from the 18th century shows
modular components set within a skeletal
construction. Sliding wall elements allow a
flexible open plan.
Tatami room
In Japan, room size is still measured in
tatamis. For example, a four and a half
tatami room is roughly 9 m2.
Volkswagen factory
The perfection of the assembly line and mass production in the automobile
industry was an invention of a system of manufacturing that was inspirational
to the building of the home.
Progress in Europe
In Europe, prefabricated architecture was developing its own
modern architectural language as we saw in the example of the
Maison Citrohan, but on the commercial level the idea of building
systems experienced a number of false starts. Modern European
architecture was given a major impetus through the work of Walter
Gropius and the founding of the Bauhaus, the most influential
school of art and architecture in the 20th century, in 1919. Close-
ly tied with various sectors like household products, painting and
plastic arts, architects experimented with new architectural forms
for industrial production. Prefabrication in architecture was not
new: wooden military barracks, corrugated metal churches in the
11
colonies and factories built of factory-made cast iron were al-
ready familiar images. Levittown, Pennsylvania, 1959
Fast-track, balloon-framed houses were planned and developed as a
complete suburban community.
12
14
13
17
15
“Frankfurter Plattenbau”, Ernst May, 1926–1930, under construction
A factory-manufactured house of this type was one of the few concrete
Concrete slab construction “System Occident”, Berlin-Friedrichs-
structures to be presented at the Weißenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart in 1927.
felde, Martin Wagner, 1924–1926
System Occident was a large concrete slab construction modelled after
American prototypes. The slabs were “prefabricated” on site. Despite
technical problems, this method was an important precedent for future slab
systems.
19
18
20
22
21
23
24
25
26
British developments
An early example of industrialised system building construction
was the Crystal Palace, designed by the gardener Joseph Pax-
ton in 1851 for the Great Exhibition in London (29–31). At a time
when buildings were made of stone and took many years to
erect, the Crystal Palace was designed, manufactured and as-
sembled in eight months. This was only possible through the
manufacturing of a kit of parts in the factory and the ingenious
idea of using repetitive, self-supporting bays that could be erect-
ed independent from one another by unskilled workers. Columns
were composite structures that could be connected to exten-
sions or various decorative features, all glass panels were of
standard dimensions and the supporting framework was dimen-
sioned accordingly. The exhibition hall was a complete building
system of modules, components and connections. It also em-
ployed system integration encompassing drainage, operable
ventilation and natural light. Its significance lies not in its large
volume nor in the pioneering modular iron prefabricated struc-
ture, but in its reliance upon and extension of the rationalisation
process to the entire construction site, from factory to site.
28
Industrialised building was already flourishing before the First
World War in Great Britain whose industry was manufacturing, Elements of a Russian large-panel prefab system
System building requires a minimal number of elements used
packaging and shipping homes, churches, storage houses and
to economise building costs, but should optimally differentiate
just about every necessary structure for colonies in Asia and the outer forms and allow varying floor arrangements.
29
30
materials
site work
skilled labor
three years
1 Alternative (pre-industrial) proposals for the Crystal Palace involved traditional materials and methods that would have required a building time of three years.
industrialised processes
skilled and unskilled labour
industrialised factory
processes production transport site work
factory
materials production transport site work
skilled and unskilled factory
production transport site work
labour less than one year
2 J. Paxton’s design was also an organisational concept. The flow of materials, production of systems and subsystems,
labour and assembly were organised as a planned sequence of events. 31
32
33
crete systems were mainly used for large housing projects of most of the building systems with “modern” forms suffered nega-
eight to 20 floors in height and integrated internal and external tive branding. There are, however, timeless documents from the
finishes, wiring and plumbing. The Larsen-Nielsen system from past 60 years that embody the spirit of the time, express the new
Denmark was adapted and was built by the hundreds in the Lon- materials and technology and continue to inspire the develop-
don area. ment of architecture built with systems.
Although the centralised modular system was a success for
the production of many building types, system building declined Case Study Houses
due to changes in government policies. Technical problems were The Case Study Houses were brought to life by Los Angeles-
not to be overseen, and finally the 1967 economic crisis opened based Arts & Architecture magazine and its publisher, John En-
views that system building was too expensive and inadequate. tenza, between 1945 and 1966. The American public, like the
Special attention was drawn by the 1968 collapse of the just British and German public, was showing little enthusiasm for new,
finished 22-storey Ronan Point, built with the Larsen Nielsen “industrialised” forms in housing. Traditional appearances were
large-panel system. An explosion on the 18th floor caused a pro- the norm, and this was frustrating for architects who were dis-
gressive collapse of the entire southeast corner, allowing specu- covering exciting potential in mass-produced housing. In Califor-
lations that the building type was the cause. Though it was prov- nia, where the boundary between inside and outside is climati-
en in 1970 that system building was indeed cheaper than cally and culturally more open, a landscape of open architecture
traditional building for all house types and that the collapse was had developed. Architects like Irving Gill, Richard Neutra, Frank
not at all related to the form of construction, system building was Lloyd Wright and Rudolph Schindler were closing the genera-
not to receive any further sponsoring. Traditional building meth- tion gap between traditional bungalow architecture and the An-
ods were to take over again. geleno Modern. Hispanic influence can be seen in Gill’s work,
In the countries mentioned in this chapter, the more success- the International Style background in the Viennese Neutra and
ful methods relied heavily on the traditional outward appearance Schindler, and Japanese influence in Frank Lloyd Wright. John
applied to an inherently different concept of architecture while Entenza shared this openness, but he also had a sharp vision.
35
36
37
Case Study House No. 22, Pierre Koenig, Los Angeles, 1959–1960
This L-shaped steel structure is one of the most radically reduced Case Study Houses. All elements were standard
industrialised elements.
38
40
Maison Tropicale, Jean Prouvé, 1954
A prefabricated house in the truest sense of the term, the project was first built in Congo. Maison Tropicale, Jean Prouvé,
This one was dismantled some 50 years later and reassembled in New York. design 1949–1951
This house is made of components that
would fill up two shipping containers
today. All but the largest structural
elements are aluminium. The heaviest
piece weighed in at around 100 kg and
could easily be handled by two men.
39
42
41 43
Dymaxion House, Richard Buckminster Fuller, 1928 Diagram of Dymaxion Deployment Unit
This futuristic prototype was to have many derivatives to follow. The home version of the DDU was technically altered to achieve a natural
ventilating effect that supposedly functioned despite contradictory physical
principles.
44 45
Wichita House, Wichita, Kansas, Richard Buckminster Fuller, 1945 Connection detail of the Packaged House,
The home version of the Dymaxion Deployment Unit was larger, modified Konrad Wachsmann, 1942
with technically advanced interior fittings and still economically packed for The construction principle of the inwardly focused
easy transport. connection elements allows a uniform outer surface.
46
47
48 50
Midi system, Fritz Haller, 1980 House of the Future, Alison and Peter Smithson,
The connection of a column and the double open-web roof trusses 1955–1956, view from above
with a prefabricated steel construction. The house was constructed of plastic-impregnated fibre
plasterboard.
51
52
53
SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG 37
Construction types
Light-frame construction
Light-frame construction is based on lightweight, linear struc- two storeys. The studs were lightweight and compact, making
tural members with a uniform cross section. The structural mem- them easily transportable. Furthermore, the houses could be built
bers, or studs, form a frame of exterior walls. Diagonal bracing without skilled labour. However, this system as a wooden struc-
members provided lateral stability in the past, but this arrange- ture has disadvantages, such as the requirement for long timber
ment has been superseded by carefully nailed rigid panels such members and the tendency of wood to shrink over a period of
as plywood sheathing, mineral fibreboard or engineered wood time. Probably the greatest disadvantage of this technique is
panels for higher shear strength. Cladding is added to the exte- that the path of fire along the length of the members had to be
rior to protect against weathering, and the voids between the obstructed with fire stops. This method of construction was con-
studs are filled with soft insulation or rigid insulation boards at- sequently banned by certain building codes in the USA in the
tached to the studs. Two major light-frame building techniques late 1940s. This building system has been largely replaced by
used in the USA, Canada and the Scandinavian countries, where platform framing, but today, since light-gauge steel construction
timber is plentiful, are the balloon frame and the platform frame has replaced the wood in the balloon frame, the older system
(2), with the latter continuing to be the predominant method of has made a comeback.
construction in these countries today. These methods became The platform frame is similar to the balloon frame, with the
especially popular after the invention of the industrially manufac- exception that the wall frames (stud bays) are floor-height and
tured steel nail in the 19th century, which considerably alleviated the floor frames (joist bays) are built independently of one an-
the task of connecting wooden members. other (3–5). The platform frame can generally take up to four
The older balloon frame technique, which was common in levels of walls and floors. For the roof construction, trusses are
the USA until the late 1940s, uses continuous vertical timber often preferred to wooden beams for their longer clear spans.
members, typically 2 × 4 inch (5.1 × 10.2 cm) or 2 × 6 inch Many standard configurations allow space for the installation of
(5.1 × 15.3 cm) placed at 16 inch (40.6 cm) centres. They ex- wiring, piping and ductwork. Roof trusses are often factory-built
tend from the base sill up to the top plate and support the inter- to reduce the requirement for site labour and to ensure dimen-
mediate floor joists and the roof rafters or trusses to a height of sional stability and quality. Both light-frame structures, balloon
and platform frame, are usually supported by a concrete slab
foundation or foundation walls, which vary according to terrain
and ground conditions.
Balloon FrameBalloon
2 Frame Platform Frame
Platform Frame
Balloon frame and platform frame
The diagrams of the light-frame construction types show parallel linear elements or studs. In the balloon frame,
studs reach from the base sill past the intermediate floors up to the top plate. In the platform frame, the studs are
connected from sole plates to top plates to form storey-high planar forms, or platforms.
38 SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG
3
SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG 39
Slab construction
Slab construction is based on planar structural members con-
sisting of vertical loadbearing walls and horizontal slabs. As in a
house of cards, each loadbearing wall is a structural unit able to
1 support vertical loads from floor, wall and roof systems above.
The walls must also resist lateral loads from supported floor and
1
roof systems as well as wind loads, etc. Horizontal slabs must
1 support dead (permanent loads from building structure) and live
a loads (moving and varying loads, such as occupants and furnish-
1 ings).
Flooring systems of slab construction generally consist of
precast concrete plank floor systems or in-situ reinforced con-
crete floor systems, depending on the required slab form and
degree of prefabrication (6). Precasting structural elements al-
lows for greater quality control of the concrete form and its
2
structural integrity. If prestressed or post-tensioned, they have
greater structural efficiency and can achieve longer spans. In
b
2 comparison with other flooring systems, such as the convention-
2
al wood joist and plywood subfloor system, the floors in slab
3
c
3
40 SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG
construction buildings are completed in a single step, as the Rigid foam insulation is glued to a continuous oriented strand
structure and the flooring surface are made of the same continu- board (OSB) slab construction and sealed around the edges to
ous material. make well-insulated, airtight panels that are light, easy to handle
Concrete is ideal for wall systems using slab construction. and capable of supporting loads in the same way as a wooden
Other materials, such as metal (corrugated for bending strength) frame or a brick wall. In effect, they are not so different from light-
and wood do not have the structural qualities or are not available frame construction, because they employ the same materials but
in the sizes necessary to make slab construction possible with- simply take them one step further in the construction process.
out the aid of other materials. Composite materials (7), such as Like concrete, they lend themselves well to prefabrication and
structural insulating panels (SIP), utilise the structural and ther- customisation, which is one reason for the growing popularity of
mal qualities of different materials sandwiched together (8). this material, especially in the USA.
SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG 41
Post-and-beam construction
The post-and-beam construction is a combination of construc- minium panels, stone cladding or wood, just to name a few. Mies
tion methods. A larger skeletal framework, usually made of steel, van der Rohe used concrete blocks as infill in the Weißenhof-
reinforced concrete or wood provides the overall structure, and siedlung in Stuttgart and applied a uniform layer of stucco to
infill panels provide the enclosure (9–11). Structure and surface cover the structure. The post-and-beam method is more cost-
can be considered independently of one another, allowing a effective for larger projects, such as multi-family housing proj-
wide range of panel materials (12) to be used and the modules ects, where there is greater repetition of structural elements. It is
to be varied: they can have different sizes and can be with or therefore not used as frequently for single-family homes.
without openings, which may also vary in size.
Because the infill panels or materials do not have to carry any
loads other than their own, the architect can exercise full free-
dom of choice. The structural grid can be filled with materials
with a variety of colours and textures such as brick skins, alu-
System 01: House E. Kaufmann, Andelsbuch, Austria, Johannes Kaufmann and Oskar Leo Kaufmann, 1997
The system, an example of post-and-beam construction, consists of a laminated-wood skeletal frame and a variety of glazed or wooden
wall panels.
42 SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG
10
11
12
SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG 43
On-site building and prefabrication
On-site building
On-site building is the construction of a building and all its ele- Simpson Strong-Tie, one of the leading US manufacturers of
ments at the location of the building. Wooden studs are cut and metal connectors for wood construction, produces connectors
connected, concrete is shuttered and poured in place, and steel that eliminate measuring and render carpentry knowledge irrele-
beams are welded by hand. It is perceived as a more inefficient vant (13). Prefabricated steel strap ties, stud shoes, girder truss
way of producing a building when compared to prefabricated ties and other wood construction connectors connect, reinforce
housing. However, the working methods in some countries have angles, cover tolerances and eliminate previously necessary
become highly systemised. One can argue that on-site house woodwork (notches and tongue-and-groove joints) that required
production in, say, the USA or the Netherlands, is not only a clear highly skilled carpenters. Moreover, the template positioning of
example of system building, but it is also orchestrated and pre- nails, positioned to achieve maximum hold without splitting,
fabricated as much as its factory-made counterparts (14). saves construction time and reduces human errors.
The reduction of required carpentry skills and, consequently, Most homes in North America are on-site light-frame houses,
the wages, has resulted in a consequent shortage of trained car- while houses in the Netherlands are mainly prefabricated struc-
penters in countries such as the USA. The profit-oriented build- tures. The fact is that both countries build their homes very sys-
ing sector rectified this problem by changing building methods tematically, but use a combination of both methods to maximise
so that the work could be performed using cheap, unskilled labour. efficiency. The difference lies in the materials: the majority of
Acute
Side
10dx1¹⁄?"
Nails 0-45°
13
Acute
Images of installation steps from Simpson
Side Strong-Tie catalogue
The products help eliminate measuring and cutting, save time and reduce the need for skilled labour.
10dx1¹⁄?"
Nails 0-45°
44 SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG
homes in the USA are of wood, while most new homes in the Netherlands (15). The structure of the houses is often of prefab
Netherlands are of concrete; as a result the construction meth- concrete panels or large concrete blocks. General building prac-
ods differ. Homes in the USA are constructed predominantly tice shows a tendency to complete the remainder of the con-
with the stick-building method, but most of the wood studs, floor struction, such as exterior finishes, on site as it is relatively quick
joists, flooring panels, doors, windows, matching frames, stairs and can be controlled individually. The more lenient (in terms of,
and roof trusses are precut and delivered to the building site. for instance, fire protection, energy standards or structural re-
Much on-site work nevertheless has to be done, as the structure, quirements) construction standards of both the USA and the
interior, adjustments and finishes are completed by hand. Netherlands partly explain why construction is far faster and
Prefabricated concrete elements, not just in the housing sec- cheaper in these countries than, for example, in Germany, where
tor, have become technically perfected and standardised, so slower on-site methods prevail, even with the use of prefabri-
Degreethat
of prefab
prefab has/ become
on-sitethework
prevalent method of building in the cated elements.
prefab
prefab on-site
14
15
SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG 45
Prefabrication
The advantages of prefabrication of building elements in a qual- Practical application and mass customisation are key goals of
ity-controlled environment are substantial: the reduction of la- standardisation, and standardisation is essential to the produc-
bour and construction time on the building site, the year-round tion and choice of components. Components such as façade
optimum working conditions of the factory and the precision and elements or windows and doors, and structural elements such
overall better quality of the components. The higher costs due to as wooden beams and steel trusses are not only standardised in
transportation and limitations generally associated with prefabri- order to make industrial mass production feasible, but are also
cation outweigh expensive site work, especially in urban areas. coordinated to ease construction and to allow alternatives in
As prefabrication speeds up the production process significant- design.
ly, it allows for earlier capital return, which is often meticulously Sometimes the meanings and the application of systemisa-
calculated by large-scale property investors. Prefabrication is tion, prefabrication and standardisation are ambiguous. All-en-
therefore a widely adopted practice in both the residential and compassing prefabricated systems such as Kaufmann’s System
non-residential sectors. Building family houses in suburban or 01 (16, 17) allow unique solutions that standard industrialised
rural areas usually does not involve the same space limitations products cannot deliver. A prefabricated building quite often in-
as building on urban sites. However, prefabrication is attractive cludes standard industrialised elements, but a custom-made
under certain conditions, for example where a high concentra- house made of standard industrialised elements is not necessar-
tion of housing must be erected quickly. Another reason for pre- ily a prefabricated system. A systemised building method, wheth-
fabrication in private housing construction can be attributed to er it includes standard industrialised elements or not, ensures
the fixed-price policy of the house building companies, which is central quality control.
a high priority for the client.
16 17
System 01, Johannes Kaufmann and Oskar Leo Kaufmann System 01, transport
The components of the system are built in the factory under ideal The dimensions are limited by the width of the road, the vehicle
conditions. transporting the element and national road traffic regulations.
46 SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG
Flat-pack
If people saw the house as a product that is delivered practically Houses are marketed on the same platforms as the home fur-
as a do-it-yourself kit of parts, then perhaps the average age of nishings. The “simple and good quality” principle of Muji and the
homeowners would decrease drastically. Those opting for the do-it-yourself concept of IKEA both work well with the ready-
flat-pack system of housing receive the materials directly on site designed (although not quite ready-made) principle of flat-pack
and save on labour costs by erecting the house themselves. A home delivery. In Japan as well as in Sweden, home of the IKEA
future homeowner could alternatively hire an architect, get the BoKlok House, prefabricated housing accounts for 90 % of all
plans approved, and build the home from standard, industri- housing, and the designs maintain the simplicity of traditional
alised parts himself, but with a flat-pack house, he can do away homes.
with the planning part and simply get on with the work. A variety
of design solutions are available for different needs.
Flat-pack is the prefab answer for the young or those gifted
with handyman skills (18, 19). The name flat-pack refers to the
way in which the system components are delivered to the owner
– as precut flat panels compactly stacked together. In this way,
the building components are built in the factory, efficiently
packed to save space, delivered and finally assembled on site.
Since 2004, the Japanese home and lifestyle company Muji
has been offering ready-designed houses; one of the three avail-
able types was designed by Kazuhiko Namba (20). The Muji
18
19
20
SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG 47
Modular building
Since the advent of modern prefabrication, modular building no Compared to other types of prefabrication, this is the most cum-
longer refers only to the practice of building to a standard di- bersome and technically challenging one due to the transport of
mensional module, but also to the prefabrication of a volumetric enclosed usable space. Their weight is limited by the load ca-
building unit. Modules are three-dimensional independent units pacity of trucks, trains or helicopters, and the size of the modules
or partially complete sections. They can be repeated by stacking is limited by road widths and shipping container standards, while
or joining side by side in order to extend spaces. The module is the maximum width not requiring special permission for road
the most complete form of prefabrication, usually about 95 % transport is 2.55 m. The modules are usually lifted into place by
fully fitted with the essential kitchen and bathroom facilities, stor- cranes and bolted in position. During lifting, the modules are
age amenities and living spaces in the factory, and then sealed subjected to structural forces, notably vertical bending and
for transportation. The greatest advantage of modular building is shear, which are quite different to those they experience after
that the building is immediately ready for use after power and installation. The need to strengthen the modules for lifting and
water facilities are connected. the doubling of floor, roof and wall frames at the connection
points result in greater quantities of structural material.
21
22
48 SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG
Trailer homes, still popular in the USA since their uptake in the In the extension of the Post Hotel in Bezau (23, 24), Austria, the
1930s, are basically modules on wheels. Such manufactured advantages of building with modules clearly outweigh the disad-
homes are the answer to the industrialisation of the house as a vantages. Firstly, extremely cold weather conditions and moun-
product. The equally futuristic notion of living in capsules be- tainous terrain would have greatly hindered continuous assem-
came a reality in the 1970s with the Nakagin Capsules in Tokyo bly. Secondly, on-site construction had to be kept to a minimum
(Kisho Kurokawa, 1972) and the Capsule Hotel (Kisho Kuroka- because of the year-round opening times of this highly-ranked
wa, 1979) in Osaka. Both examples are in Japan, where the real hotel for winter athletes and spa visitors. Thirdly, the high level of
estate prices are so high that tight living spaces are the norm. craftsmanship of the interiors required specific machinery and
The most basic examples of modular building are shipping con- precise control. In this case, the travelling distance was only
tainers, fitted out with the proper insulation and services and 2 km and the independent floor and ceiling systems offered an
stacked upon each other or within a framework, as temporary excellent sound barrier for the hotel guests.
forms of living such as students’ quarters (21) or asylum seek-
ers’ accommodation. The level of comfort ranges from bare and
loud to luxurious and solitary, but the concept of living in a box,
at least temporarily, can have a certain aesthetic appeal (22).
23
24
SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG 49
Culture and the issue of design
USA
The choice of architectural styles of housing in the USA is vast. ered an unsystematic, inefficient system of building, on-site con-
The style mostly used for light-frame building is a modified ver- struction has become a highly organised system, capable of
sion of the vernacular or traditional US house: porch, façade churning out a traditional-looking house in less than a month.
with neo-classical ornaments and pitched roof. The highly effi- The simple application of design to a stick-frame house al-
cient method of light-frame building is a systemised process and lows US homeowners to get what they want – space and techni-
hence part of system building, although the actual construction cal comfort on the inside and the “home” look on the outside –
work takes place on site. A house that is categorised as prefab- for an affordable price. Houses are almost always presented as
ricated, on the other hand, is firmly linked to modern architecture, variable products with a resale value in the real estate market.
i.e. minimalist design and usually a flat roof. This, too, is built However varied the styles may be, the overwhelming tendency
using building system techniques as most people would define toward the traditional building type is painstakingly uncreative.
them – but mainly in the factory. Styles are loosely tagged as, for example, Georgian, Spanish
Colonial, Mediterranean, Victorian and Greek Revival, and there
Stick-frame houses is even the option to compromise with a melange of styles (26).
Remarkably, over 95 % of new homeowners in the USA have Quadrant Homes is one of the most profitable housing com-
never spoken to an architect, mostly because they own contrac- panies in the USA and owes its success to its adaptation of Eiji
tor-made stick-frame homes, but also because the housing in- Toyoda’s lean principles. Founded in Seattle in 1969, the com-
dustry does well without architects. Almost all wood and steel pany sold over 1,000 houses in 2003 alone, producing over 250
elements, connections, façade components and components million USD in revenue. Prior to 1996, Quadrant produced and
such as stairs, roofing systems and mechanical systems are stored building elements (build-to-stock strategy); today the
standardised and industrially produced. Style features such as company produces when the orders come in. The firm uses an
gables, columns, porticos and endless types of façade veneers appealing marketing strategy, and homeowners are offered
are pasted on the main structure like masks. Previously consid- choice, quality and the security of various structural, technical
The housing
The housing
Thebuilding
housing
building
industry
building
industry
systems
industry
systems
(adapted
systems
(adapted
from
(adapted
from
Prof.Prof.
from
Halman)
Prof.
Halman)
Halman)
a Japanese
Japanese
Japanese
modelmodel
- model b American
- American
- American
and Dutch
and Dutch
and
model
Dutch
model - c Western
- model - Western
model
Western
model
- model
- -
centralized
centralized
centralized balanced
balanced
balanced decentralized
decentralized
decentralized
25 26
50 SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG
and environmental warranties. Advanced software makes cus- How do architects go about conceptualising, developing, mar-
tomising easy. Each house, built in the wood framing method on keting and building the prefab house in the USA? The business
site, takes 54 days to build. The workload is scheduled in such a of prefabricated architecture is challenging.
way that every construction stage is synchronised at six houses Typically, an architect comes up with a design, finds a con-
per day. This example of system building is effectively an inverse tractor to fund and build a prototype and then finds a developer
assembly line – the different stages of the “factory” move from to manufacture the product. Another strategy places the devel-
house to house. oper as the central figure. The developer, more experienced with
real estate fluctuations and usually backed up with more capital,
Prefabricated housing brings in the architect to design a house system and a builder
Eye-catching websites on prefabricated housing like www.fab- to produce the system components, has a prototype built and
prefab.com and www.prefabs.com are spreading the trend in organises the marketing strategy. A prefab home builder, Living
modern architecture, which was previously limited to the design- Homes of Santa Monica, California, for example, works with this
conscious (28, 29). Insiders seek inspiration through trend- strategy, featuring two or three architects and promising the nec-
setters like Dwell magazine. American designers like Michelle essary expertise in building and management. Another company,
Kaufmann, Rocio Romero (27), Marmol Radziner and Associates Parco Homes, is run by an architect with a team of experts from
are well-known names to prefab aficionados. The Internet pro-
vides the potential homeowner (prefab or not) with choices of
materials, arrangements and sizes, and when they have finished
shopping, they can ring up the total price, usually not including
foundations and public utilities. Fabprefab, a platform for both
on-the-market and potential prefab homes from all over the
world, proves that the interest in prefab exists on a global scale.
28
27
SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG 51
the real estate, business management and engineering fields. In Consistent with all strategies is that the architect cannot pro-
this way, the prefabricated house system is designed and devel- duce the prefab product alone; the architect needs a business
oped while all the other aspects of the product including produc- companion because the prefab house is a factory product and
tion and marketing are pursued, thus ensuring quality control. requires much more than a good design in order to sell (30).
consultants marketing
builder
prototype
builder
a1 Linear strategy
The linear strategy
2 The centralized strategy with developer as central figure
developer PRODUCT
consultants
consultants prototype
builder
marketing
architect architect /
prototype
developer
b2 Centralised strategy
The centralized withwith
strategy developer asascentral
developer centralfigure
figure
(Example: Living Homes)
builder
PRODUCT
marketing
developer PRODUCT consultants
30
business plan
(development) builder
PRODUCT
2 The centralized strategy with developer as central figure
52 SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG
marketing
The Netherlands
The Dutch have reclaimed thousands of hectares of land from much higher density of high-rises of the rest of Europe. In com-
under the Zuider Zee since the 1930s and have maintained very parison, 53 % of Germans live in apartment buildings and most
progressive government policies for urban planning. The national others live in single-family homes.
planning policies have ensured that not only housing, but also Traditional styles are not as prevalent as in the USA. Dutch
economic activities, land and water conservation and infrastruc- homeowners and tenants (about 35 % of homes are social
ture are balanced. One of the most inspiring achievements is the rental houses, mostly owned and managed by housing asso-
number of housing units subsidised and built by the government ciations) have been much more open to experiments in archi-
since the Second World War – about 80 % of the present hous- tecture (31). Up until the 1990s, most of the housing com-
ing stock of 7 million. This could not have been possible without ponents were prefabricated on such a large scale that the
the consistent use and development of prefabricated, industri- repetition of houses became monotonous. However, thanks to
alised building components. government housing subsidies, architects and planners were
The population of 16 million is relatively small, but there is able to develop systems of building, mostly of concrete, that
little usable land space, since 61 % is used for agriculture and substantially alleviated the on-site construction process, saved
19 % is covered by water. The density of 483 inhabitants per time and money and allowed for variations. A fresh wave of ar-
square kilometre is greater than that of Japan (323/km²), which chitectural experiments sprouted in settlements like Almere,
has similar compactly built areas. This illustrates the good sense one of the new towns and growth centres created outside ex-
of the Bijlmermeer, or “bundled concentration” called for by isting cities as so-called greenfield developments since the
Dutch law. Two thirds of the nation’s 7 million homes are attached 1960s to ease the densification of the old centres. Since its
houses, most of the rest are in low-rise apartment buildings and beginnings in 1975, Almere grew from a handful to 180,000
very few are single-family homes. This differs greatly from the inhabitants and can boast many clever ideas in architecture
single-family home dominated suburbs of America, and from the (32).
32
SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG 53
Japan
Along with the Netherlands and Sweden, Japan is one of the
major hubs of prefabrication with 90 % of all single-family homes
(1.25 million homes per year) coming from the factory (25). A
handful of large diversified firms, often rising out of other indus-
tries (like Mitsui, Sekisui Chemical and supermarket chains) have
included prefabricated housing in their programme and account
for almost all prefabricated homes built in Japan in the last de-
cades (33). Home exhibitions in Japan display houses made
from precast concrete, structural steel, timber-frame as well as
light-gauge steel and wooden light-frame construction. Fully au-
tomated home factories like Daiwa use both robotics and man-
power to prefabricate a complete house within an astonishing
five hours. Engineered construction details like continuous joints
and the general efficiency of material use can be attributed to
prefabrication, especially in situations where traditional architec-
ture would have called for complex, difficult-to-construct wood-
en joints. Earthquake-proof Mitsui Isolation Systems go one step
farther by easing the stress of fixed joints through ball-bearing
motion-dampening systems at foundation level. Moreover, state-
of-the-art entertainment facilities, sensitivity-controlled living en-
vironments as well as technology learned from the auto industry,
such as electricity-producing fuel cells and vibration dampers,
are being applied to the housing product. The prefab home
building company Sekisui, which erects 56,000 units a year, de-
veloped the Zero Emission House in 2008 as an environmentally
conscious solution.
Two main aspects characterise system-built housing in Japan:
the modularisation of building components based on traditional
Japanese architecture and technical engineering fostered by
years of production ideals. Traditional building used the tatami
mat and column spacing as dimensional modules to facilitate the
production and interchangeability of building components. Per-
manence was not important, but the material was. Spaces were
shifted through sliding doors, and the option of dismantling and
relocating a building was a device in case of war, or today, of
natural disaster. The steel-framed houses produced by Daiwa
House Group are still based on the tatami mat grid. Houses to-
day do not need to be designed to be dismantled, but the com-
pany, always adapting to customers’ changing needs, is cur-
33
rently developing changeable frames and interiors in response to
Sorest Home Model, Toyota Homes the country’s changing demographics. As in most westernised
These modular homes are built on the assembly line in a housing plant and
countries, families have decreased in size.
assembled on site within 45 days. Like most housing companies in Japan,
Toyota homes range in size, style and price and offer other amenities, such
as a recharging system for eco-friendly hybrid cars.
54 SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG
Constant change is the underlying factor in the appearance of on the spatial organisation of the sacred private interior, as the
the home. The house is a sign of stability in the society, yet with traditional house court and modern living room reflect, and guar-
an average 25-year lifespan, it is as tenuous a product as the anteed good building standards. The focus of architectural crit-
automobile or a laptop. Factory-made houses in Japan, like cars ics is the emergence of the few architect-designed homes with a
and electronics, are controlled, mass-produced manufactured utilitarian aesthetic for embracing bold forms and visually extend-
products and are more accepted than in North America and ing spaces with light. The F.O.B. Houses, developed and mar-
much of Europe. Stylistically, the home exteriors adapt trendy keted by a large household goods retail chain, the F.O.B. Co-op,
western elements, but with the exception of a few minimalistic are a case in point. They offer individual, affordable designs with
architect-designed prefab homes, there is little innovation in the contemporary exteriors by using consistent detailing and coop-
sea of indistinctive architecture. For most, the emphasis is rather erating with the same few building companies (34, 35).
34
SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG 55
's
35
Um House, Ikoma
The Um House is one of five proto-
types of F.O.B. Houses developed on
principles of spatial continuity and
interior courtyards, both reminders of
the traditional Japanese house.
56 SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG
Great Britain
Martin Pawley stated in A Private Future 30 years ago that hous- and pricey. The primary generator of resistance, ironically, lies in
ing was a product in a consumer society. The vast majority of the nature of owner-occupation, in which the home is primarily an
people in Great Britain rented their houses under terms of ten- investment, rather than a consumer good or a living environment.
ure, an oppressive condition in contrast to the privilege of own- This means that people will pay more to ensure higher future
ership. The negative image of rental housing was directly associ- value, so a house must have the right location, be durable (i.e. of
ated with post-war era prefabrication and lasted for decades as brick or granite) and, very importantly, not look prefabricated. Ac-
much of the temporary housing became permanent. There was a cordingly, the clients are resistant to new materials, technology
problematic duality from the beginning; the hype to own every- and non-standard forms.
thing from gadgets to cars spoke for industrial production of all The Egan Report Rethinking Construction (1998), one of the
things necessary, but when it came to housing, it had to be built most influential initiatives aimed at improving the efficiency and
with traditional methods and be affordable at the same time. The quality of the construction industry, instigated research into the
numbers have reversed since then: in 2009, 17.5 million, or prefabrication of homes. The highly fragmented building indus-
roughly 80 % of British dwellings were owner-occupied. But the try, however, has failed to adopt a greater degree of prefabrica-
resistance to prefabrication still persists from both the consumer tion and standardisation of processes and products. The rea-
as well as from the housebuilder. sons for this include high capital cost, the difficulty to achieve
The reasons for consumer resistance to prefabricated build- economies of scale, complex interfacing between systems, and
ing, also referred to as off-site MMC (modern methods of con- the nature of the British planning system. Off-site methods
struction) are manifold: financing a prefabricated home is difficult amongst larger private-sector developers are applied to a very
because lenders find new materials a risk. Obtaining permis- limited extent, but are growing. The advantages are clear: com-
sions to build is known to be complicated, and land is scarce pensation for shortages of skilled labour, time and cost certainty,
36
Oxley Woods housing site, Milton Keynes, Great Britain, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, 2008
A concept for low-cost prefabricated housing units with a modular palette of forms that can be adapted to today’s changing
demographics. The Trespa cladding panels, made of thermosetting resins and wood fibres, are an example of the conscious
choice of materials with an integrated environmental management system (EcoHat).
SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG 57
higher quality and minimised on-site duration. The products to- sioned by central government after a competition for low-cost
day are of marginal quality, and this is worsened by the down- prefabricated housing and has reached excellent energy rating
sized spaces governed by developers. standards. The palette of forms is modular and simple, untypical
Entirely prefabricated homes make up a tiny fraction of the in the neighbourhood, and continues a trend set by persevering
British home industry, but this market is growing. Among others, architects of all generations. The variable modular cladding pan-
the Murray Grove urban renewal housing project with one of els can be adapted to suit the various needs of the owners.
the first manufactured prefab modular homes in Great Britain by Changing lifestyles and the increasing emphasis on sustainability,
Cartwright Pickard Architects (2000) of London and the afford- coupled with good prices, make this innovative mass housing
able BoKlok House by IKEA (1997) of Sweden have caught the prototype a success. These benefits are achieved through a care-
attention of potential homeowners in a climate of high demand for fully engineered manufacturing process together with the clad-
housing. A particularly interesting project, the Oxley Woods hous- ding design concept and efficient living and servicing zones. The
ing site in Milton Keynes by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners EcoHat, a rooftop service unit, reduces energy consumption by
shows a shift in the needs of the homeowner and subsequent almost 40 % by providing passive solar water heating, filtering
new wind in architectural style (36). This project was commis- fresh air and recovering the heat from the circulating air (37).
37
58 SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG
Austria
For the houses in Vorarlberg, a mountainous region in the west- solid wood with pitched roofs, wooden shingles and clay roof
ern tip of Austria, a thin line lies between the vernacular and the tiles. The newer houses of the area have the same sturdy struc-
modern (40). There exists not a competition of styles or building tural qualities, but there are occasional flat roofs, metal cladding
types, but generations of gradual modifications of the traditional and other new materials, subtle sculpting of form, larger win-
building type, which accommodate modern domestic needs with dows and an open plan interior. The changes appear to be slight,
newer building methods. When one looks at the vernacular build- but modernism is obvious.
ings of the area, one sees farm houses of compact form, built of
38
39
SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG 59
The accommodation of smaller families, integrated workspaces exist thanks to problem-oriented thinking: in the mountainous
and energy-saving solutions has led to an optimisation of con- terrain and cold weather, the prefabrication of building compo-
struction systems. The resulting architecture itself is most im- nents in the factory is a logical way to build consistently and
pressive – it is not a sudden modern architecture but one well. And, there is perhaps the human aspect to it – the archi-
that is rooted; the lines and connections are clean, details tects and builders see architecture, simply and respectfully, as
are slick and for the most part, the gestalt is elegant and re- a passion.
fined. As architect Johannes Kaufmann of Bregenz, puts it, “the The value of carpentry is also a tradition in the area – carpen-
Bregenzers have had the same basic features for 300 years”, try is a highly regarded profession and the carpenters’ involve-
despite phases during the post-war period where concrete re- ment in the production of good architecture is direct as they
placed wood as the predominant building material. His obser- work closely with architects. Michael Kaufmann of Reuthe in
vation is that the boundaries between occupations such as Vorarlberg, for one, is a third generation manager of a wood
carpenter, cabinetmaker, builder and architect are disappear- manufacturing company that produces systems and custom-
ing. There is less hierarchy between the professions than in the made wood products (38, 39). Together with other family mem-
USA or other parts of Europe. As in Switzerland, a wide-spread bers in the industry, he has built system building components as
awareness of the building environment exists. In the Vorarlberg flat-pack, modular and hybrid systems. The job requires years of
region roughly 50╃% of the houses are built by architects, apprenticeship and schooled qualifications. In return, the system
something American, German, British and Japanese architects of effective production with highly skilled craftsmen makes the
can only dream about. Affordability, design and superb quality product more affordable.
40
60 SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG
4 | Systems in Industrial Buildings
Ultra-lightweight
Ultra-lightweight buildings include lightweight glass and mem-
brane structures such as tents, glass and plastic film (polythene)
greenhouses. This category also covers long-span roofs, for ex-
ample over sports stadia and railway stations. Their low mass is
due to a lightweight outer skin and a minimal loadbearing struc-
ture, which normally restricts their height to a single storey. The
overwhelming majority of systems in this category are designed
to provide temporary buildings, for which a low weight, compact
Concrete/
dimensions when packed away for transport, and ease of erec-
steel skeleton
tion and disassembly are important.
Concrete skeleton
Ridge tents
The traditional ridge tent is the most popular tent type for com-
mercial uses. The pneumatic roof structure is an interesting fur-
ther development of this tent type. This form of construction has
Polygon tent loadbearing advantages in addition to providing improved ther-
mal insulation (3).
Dome tents
The technology of the transportable big tent for events, such as
circus “big tops” and mirror tents developed for example in the
Netherlands and Belgium, first emerged at the end of the 19th
century. With these event tents, it is important that the interior
remains as clear of intermediate supports as possible, so that
Dome tent
there is complete freedom in the choice of layout and visitors
have an unobstructed view of the space. Richard Buckminster
Fuller developed the geodesic dome, a very light, strong and
simple structure based on a modular dome system, in the 1950s
(7). Based on this idea, the young Berlin company Zendome de-
veloped a dome tent system for events (4–6). The Zendome sys-
tem offers event tents up to 1000 m2 in area.
Pagoda tent
2 3
10
2×1 3×1
containers).
The stiffened walls are shown by dashed lines, the internal space is open.
3×1×3 3×2×3
3×1
max. 3 × 2
12
Design
The modules are built on a standard, self-supporting, basic steel-
frame structure (15). The steel frame is made up of a floor panel,
four corner supports and a roof panel (16). The floor panel con-
sists of a cement screed subfloor cast on a trapezoidal profiled
steel sheet soffit, which is welded into a rectangular steel frame.
The roof panel is similarly constructed, but with a weather-resist-
ant bitumen sheet waterproofing membrane and an internally
piped rainwater drainage system. Every module has a roof, even
though the module may end up hidden within the heart of the
building. The roof is necessary to provide weather protection
during temporary outdoor storage before the modules are trans-
ported to the site.
13
Tower for Freitag lab AG, Zurich, Spillmann Echsle Architekten, 2006
The tower of container modules serves as offices and showroom. Preused
containers were recycled for the tower structure.
14
17 18
Midi system
The Midi system was developed in 1970 by the architect Fritz
Haller from Solothurn, Switzerland, in cooperation with Swiss
steel fabricators USM of Münsingen. The system was based on
a steel skeleton and was intended for multi-storey buildings with
a high proportion of building technical services installations, such
as schools or administration offices (20), and was later extended
to form the design tool Armilla, a digital layout system for serv-
ices infrastructure in buildings. The system is still being further
19
developed and adapted by the team today. The idea behind the
The adapto modular system by ERNE AG Holzbau, Laufenburg, system is to create buildings capable of being modified quickly
Switzerland, Kündig Bickel Architekten, 2000
and without destructive intervention to allow a change of use. All
Wooden modular systems have been developed from the standard modules
for hospitals, schools and offices, often in cooperation with architects. system components are designed to be easily removed at a later
This pavilion was completed as a kindergarten in 2000 and subsequently stage and reused on other sites, without being damaged or
adapted for use as a meeting and presentation room.
causing damage. A Midi building can therefore be extended in
any direction or taken down, quickly and inexpensively (21). Midi
is an integrated building system composed of six basic parts:
loadbearing, floor, roof, internal wall, façade and installation sys-
tems.
These building components are developed as prototype mod-
els, which are used to finetune their modularity. Armilla is a gen-
eral installation model for media supply and disposal systems
21
22
23 24
25
26
27
28 29
30
31
32
33
34
35
3D simulation of the overall system of the Individual Building Platform, TU Delft, the Netherlands, 2007
This system for office buildings is based on the platform strategy, a method of manufacture borrowed from the automobile industry,
in which individual variants are built on the same serially produced platform.
Individual Building Platform: building structure system Individual Building Platform: façade system
The building structure system consists of precast prestressed The façade system was conceived as an element façade to allow
concrete slabs and reinforced concrete columns, which are the highest possible quality façade to be erected as quickly as
connected to one another with a form of steel coupling with possible.
no projections below the structural ceiling soffit.
38 39
Individual Building Platform: building services system Individual Building Platform: internal fit-out system
Building services components are mainly located in the façade, The internal fit-out is completed with modular components to
and the façade interfaces to permit great flexibility inside the ensure an efficient predefined construction process inside the
building. building.
41
40
V
V-purlin - Pfette
Downstand
Rechteck Unterzug
rectangular beam
Downstand
Hut
flanged Unterzug
beam
L - Unterzug
Downstand L-beam
42
I-beam
I - Binder
43
T-T Platte
Double T-slab
M
M 120
120
Massivdecken
Solid floors
M
M 150
150
M 180
M 180
A
A 150
150//
A
A 180
180
C
C 150
150
core floors
A 200
A 200//
Hohldecken
A
A 220
220
C
C 200
200
Hollow
260–
A 260 -
A
A 400
400
V
V 320
320//
V
V 400
400
44
45
46
The process used to create a building is crucial for its later qual- sive and time-consuming process by skilled craftsmen. On the
ity and manufacturing costs. A sign of a good production pro- new assembly line, the workers did not go to the workpiece, in-
cess is that it implements the customer’s objectives efficiently stead the workpiece moved on the assembly line to the worker,
from preliminary planning to the finished building, the produc- who then had only a few simple steps in the overall process to
tion process can be divided into four phases: The planning and complete time after time with the arrival of each vehicle (4). Us-
design, the production or prefabrication in the factory, the logis- ing this method, Ford was able to more than halve the produc-
tics of delivery to the construction site and the installation on tion time of his Model T from an initial 12.5 hours to 6. In 1909,
site (1). the year following his introduction of assembly line production
For production to be successful, process management (2) for the Model T, Ford manufactured 10,000 vehicles at a price of
must achieve the required objectives in the following areas: cost 950 dollars each. The profits were invested in the continuous
management (low product costs, cost reliability for cost plan- improvement of his production techniques, which resulted in fur-
ning), time management (short design and construction phases, ther efficiency gains and price reductions. Over the 19 years of
adherence to the planned time frame), quality management (ad- production, he was able to cut the price to 280 dollars. By the
herence to quality standards). These objectives must be moni- time production stopped in 1927, Ford had sold 15 million of
tored and controlled throughout all phases. these cars in the USA alone. This production and sales record
was only overtaken in 1972 by the VW Beetle.
The example of the automobile industry Attempts were made during the 1920s with the manufactur-
The automobile industry is renowned for innovation within its ing methods of the construction industry of modern architecture
manufacturing processes. Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford in Germany to transfer the success of Ford – the car for the
Motor Company in Detroit, revolutionised automobile manufac- masses – to living space. The primary goal, that of providing af-
ture with his introduction of the assembly line (3). Before then fordable homes for everyone, was not achieved even in Frankfurt
automobiles were hand-made, one-off items built in a cost-inten- am Main, where 15,000 residential units were built between
Costs
Ti
Planning
Prefabrication
me
Planning
Logistics
Prefabrication
Installation
Logistics
ua
Q
lit y
Installation
1 2
The four phases of the production process Cost and time management
Production or prefabrication in the factory follows planning and design; The management of costs and time and the achievement of the
delivery to the construction site requires special logistics, and then required quality are the objectives for all process phases.
installation takes place on site.
PROCESSES 85
Lean production
1926 and 1930 under the leadership of Ernst May. At this time, In the 1950s, Eiji Toyoda and Taichi Ohno started to further de-
land prices were rising so rapidly, even during the planning velop Henry Ford’s production methods into the more flexible
phase, that the objective of creating a low-cost house for the Toyota production system, also known as lean production. Eiji
masses was never achieved and the social ideas of modern Toyoda had visited factories in the USA and discovered con-
architecture were never implemented. Many later attempts to siderable potential for improvement in mass production. Adopt-
mass-produce houses were unsuccessful for a variety of rea- ing a different approach to mass production than at Ford, Toyota
sons. sought to make the whole production process efficient and
86 PROCESSES
System processes
flexible (5) while reducing the cycle time for each component. In Systems can be used to simplify complex design and construc-
essence, lean production avoids stock-keeping and transport. tion processes. Their particular characteristic is that they are not
The production sequences are designed to be flexible and are permanently tied to one specific construction activity, but can be
based on a smooth work flow that can be adjusted to suit cus- used as universal solutions. Systems may be classified as primary
tomer demand. To integrate deliveries from other companies into and secondary systems. Primary systems include all the compo-
the assembly process, lean production prefers to have suppliers nents of a building and are normally oriented towards one usage
based as near as possible to the assembly plant. The workers type. Secondary systems are developed from single, closed
participate directly and assume responsibilities in the quality processes, which are extracted from an overall building process
management system. This process not only offers higher pro- and used as model solutions. As they are developed for a host of
ductivity and quality, it is considerably more flexible than mass different applications, these model solutions can be viewed as
production techniques in handling product diversity. Lean pro- optimised. The model solution process is continuously repeated
duction allows different models to be manufactured on one and therefore is continuously redesigned and improved as a re-
assembly line. That today’s stock exchanges regard Toyota as sult of the experience gained in all its applications (6).
one of the most successful global car-making companies owes
much to its logical implementation of this method of production.
Lean production’s greater flexibility is also more suitable for
the construction industry. It is successfully used by several sys- Data output
Daten-Output System
System
System System use
tem manufacturers, including Daiwa House Group from Japan Data feedback
Daten-Feedback Anwendung
This does not apply to prefabricated buildings, where production Data analysis
Datenanalyse
numbers are much lower and components are too many and too Revise
Überarbeitung
varied to allow for customisation for the individual client. system
System
Data output
Daten-Output System
System use
System
System
Daten-Feedback Anwendung
Data feedback
Data analysis
Datenanalyse
Revise
Überarbeitung
System
system
Best
Bestequality – –lowest
Qualität costKosten
niedrigste – shortest possible throughput
– kürzestmögliche times––
Durchlaufzeiten
highest
größtesafety – high
Sicherheit workplace
– hohe morale
Arbeitsmoral
Shortening of production
Verkürzung der timedurch
Produktionszeit through eliminationnicht
die Eliminierung of non-viable
werthaltiger elements
Elemente etc.
Just-In-time
Just-in-Time Menschen
People andund Teamwork
teamwork Jidoka
Jidoka 6
-- Selection
Selektion - -Common goals
Gemeinsame Prozessimmanente
Process-immanent
die
Therichtigen Teile
right parts in
in the Qualität in jeder
quality in every
-- Decision making - Cross-working
Entscheidungs- Ziele
rightrichtigen
der quantities at the
Menge using thenach
Arbeitssituation macht
working situation Data flow in system applications
findung - Crossworking Probleme deutlich
rightrichtigen
zur time Zeit Ringi system makes problems Continuous feedback from the departments is the
dem Ringi-System -obvious
Automatischer
Produk tionsstopp basis for the analysis and redesign of the process.
-- Taktzeit
Cycle time -- Andon
Automatic
-- Kontinuierlicher kontinuierliche Verbesserung
Continuous improvement
Continuous flowFluss production stop
- Teilung zwischen
- Pull-System Elimination
Eliminierung - Mensch
Self-controlled
- Pull system u. Maschine
- Kurze Umrüstzeiten nicht werthaltiger
of non-viable Elemente
elements defect recognition
- Short re-equipping - Selbstgesteuerte
- Integrierte Logistik -- genchi
Genchigenbutsu
genbutsu - Bewusstsein
- Awareness - Fehlererkennung
Quality control in
times -- 5-W-Methode
5W method fürofVerschwen-
waste every working
- Qualitätskontrolle an
- Integrated logistics (fünfmaliges Fragen dung situation
(Five questions for
nach dem Warum zur - Problem jeder Arbeitsstation
finding out about why - Problemlösung -- 5-W-Methode
5W method
Ursachenbestimmung)
something happens) solving
5
Production levelling (heijunka)
Produktionsnivellierung (heijunka)
Robust
Stabileand
und standardised
standardisierte processes
Prozesse Model of the Toyota production system
Visual management
Visuelles Management Lean production with the central idea of continuous improve-
ment, which must embrace the complete manufacturing
Philosophy
Philosophieofder
theToyota-Methode
Toyota method process and all the participants.
PROCESSES 87
Design Design systems
Design is a process in which the form of the building, its con- Design systems are the latest development in system building.
struction method and sequence are determined and defined. As with construction systems, the idea is to transfer knowledge
Cost, time and quality objectives are determined and their sus- from industrial manufacturing into the building industry. They are
tainability improved. Decisions made at this stage can only be developed by construction companies and universities of ap-
corrected in subsequent phases to a limited extent. Cost man- plied science. For about twenty years now, architects have been
agement is an example of the influence that design has on the designing almost all their buildings on computer-aided design
whole of the building process. The ability to influence costs re- (CAD) systems. These systems allow design data in the form of
duces considerably after the design phase (7). CAD drawings to be used directly for the computer-controlled
Cost estimates and completion times can be precisely met prefabrication of components in computer-aided manufacturing
only if the design team adequately considers the sequences of (CAM) processes. Closed CAD/CAM processes are frequently
events and operations of the later production processes. Design used in industry, but their application in construction processes
has effects on the entire building process, from the initial con- has been much less common until recent times. Architects’
cept to the details on site. As the design and construction proc- methods of working are often still as remote from prefabrication
esses are very closely interrelated and the initial design stages processes as they were before the introduction of CAD. Design
largely set the course for all subsequent actions, all the design systems allow closed CAD/CAM processes to be introduced
participants, including if possible the contractors, should be into building projects.
brought together early in the life of the project to form an inte- Design systems determine the construction process in a se-
grated design team. ries of established iterative design steps. Construction proc-
esses, as defined in these systems, are individual construction
processes that are not tied to particular companies, construction
methods or products. Using these systems, architectural de-
signs can be translated into project-specific construction sys-
Degree of ability to influence cost
tems. These systems have the advantage that they can cater for
Basic
evalua- Planning every architectural variant. Their disadvantage is that very little
tion Pre-
100
95
liminary
design Tender and award influence can be exerted on the costs, works programming or
Alterations (standard, layout) quality management of the eventual contractors during the sub-
sequent construction phase, as the design systems have not
Design
75 been finetuned to specific companies.
Construction systems
Construction systems stand in contrast to design systems; one
example is the modular building system (8), which was devel-
Exe-
35
cution
design oped from constructional and logistical principles. With these
Tender and award,
building structure
systems, design is determined by the constructional and logisti-
25 and services
cal requirements of production processes. The greatest difficulty
Construction, residual project planning,
residual contract awards
is to produce individual architecture despite the design being
10
based on a modular system and a standardised construction
process. If a system is based on elements with fixed module siz-
1/4 1/2 3/4 1 Project
duration es, it can only approximate the requirements of a specific design.
Degree of ability to influence cost in relation to project duration
The individual design is adjusted to suit the modular dimensions,
which often involves significant changes. The advantage of these
7
systems lies in the repetitious construction process, which gen-
Ability to influence costs related to construction phase erally falls under the sphere of influence of a contractor. It allows
All cost, time and quality objectives are determined during design. costs, works programme and quality to be centrally controlled
The ability to influence costs reduces considerably after the design phase.
and accurate estimates of these parameters to be made at the
design stage.
88 PROCESSES
Individueller Entwurf
Computer-aided design systems
Digitales Bauen was established in 1998 with the objective of
transferring the experience and knowledge of many years of re-
search at the Institute for Industrial Building Production (IFIB) at
the University of Karlsruhe into construction practice. The insti-
tute’s principal areas of research in the 1980s and 90s were the
building component systems of Fritz Haller, and in the context of
this book, the Midi building component system and the Armilla
installation model. Concepts for the comprehensive and consist- aModularisierung Raummodule
ent computer-aided design, construction and operation of these
buildings evolved from a number of research projects. A new
design methodology developed in which individual architectural
designs were systematically defined, disassembled into mod-
ules, which were then recombined in an integrative process and
finished in detail. The basic principle from which Digitales Bauen
derives its methodology is that every building contains some de-
gree of repetition and therefore can be defined using a module
specific to that building. The house is not a serially produced b Modularisierung Baukasten
product, but its individual components take a serial form within
the overall system of a building.
The design process follows the examples of CAD/CAM proc-
esses found in other industries. A building is defined in terms of
recurrently applied project standards, which are translated in the
design in ways that allow them to be manufactured from data on
CAD drawings and specifications in prefabrication works as
parts of a specified modular component. This means that spe-
cific component parts defined by the architectural requirements
Individuelle Modularisierung
are developed for every design. Controlling this process requires c
a suitable project organisation and communications structure to
integrate all specialist disciplines, such as building services and
structural engineering, and in the ideal case, the contractors
who will eventually produce the building, into the design process
at the earliest possible stage. The entire process chain, from
planning and design, through prefabrication, logistics and as-
sembly right up to facility management, is digitally controlled from
a dataset over the whole project timeline. This means that all the
construction and operating data of the building are accessible at
any time during the process through integrated computer and d
database systems.
8
PROCESSES 89
Construction process
A similar strategy was followed in the design process for the Normally the assembly work on site is linked with the construc-
Mercedes Benz Museum (9). A parametric CAD model was de- tion process. Little attention is paid to secondary construction
veloped in an early stage of the design. The geometry was not processes, such as prefabrication and logistics, because most
described in terms of fixed values, but was dependent on further buildings are designed to be assembled and built on site. This is
parameters, such as building services, structural engineering the case even though prefabricated semi-finished products, such
and building regulatory requirements. Mutual dependencies cause as windows or precast filigran concrete floor panels, are also
the effects of alterations of one parameter to be transferred to used on these sites. The three production phases of prefabrica-
other project requirements and the adjacent areas to be reas- tion, logistics and assembly are therefore present on all sites.
sessed. The design process required a cooperative working en- The proportion of the on-site construction and system building
vironment involving architects, engineers, mathematicians and processes taken up by the separate phases is different in each
computer scientists, in which problems could be solved using case.
innovative and technically complex techniques. All project partici-
pants were able to work on the model at the same time, without
having to spend time and waste bandwidth in transferring infor-
mation over communications interfaces. The results could then
be sent directly to the fabrication shops manufacturing the struc-
tural frame and façade members.
90 PROCESSES
On-site construction
On-site construction predominates building production today. prefabricated alternatives, in spite of its inefficient process
This means that, a very large proportion of production takes structure. However, on-site construction also has crucial disad-
place on the construction site. Raw materials, semi-finished and vantages. In many respects, the construction site is unsuitable
prefabricated products are delivered to site, placed into tempo- as a place of production (10). It is spatially constricted. The dif-
rary store and further processed by craftsmen. The construction ferent trades have to divide the unfinished space into working
processes for on-site methods of building are less specialised, areas, with the risk that they will hinder one another in the
and the investment in production is particularly low for the inter- cramped surroundings. At best they will be able to set up their
nal finishing works. The sizes of the companies involved in tools, power and media supplies on a temporary basis. Storage
projects using these conventional building methods range from is difficult, depending on the location of the site, and weather
small firms to international concerns. Companies of many differ- protection may be inadequate during certain phases of con-
ent sizes compete for the contracts as well. The intense pres- struction (11). The consequence is that on-site construction
sure of competition leads in many cases to the on-site construc- methods contain many hidden imponderables with respect to
tion method appearing to be cheaper to the client than the costs, the required labour hours and product quality.
10
11
PROCESSES 91
Prefabrication
Many systems are developed with the aim of disaggregating the Prefabrication allows individual processes to be planned to take
construction process as much as possible and shifting activities place spatially separate from one another and unhindered in
off the site and into the factory (12). For part of a building to be specialist factories (13). In the factories there are no unfavoura-
prefabricated, the design must be capable of being broken down ble weather conditions. Floor space can be laid out optimally for
into fabricated units suitable for factory production. These units, the production flow and use made of special equipment, such as
also known as components or modules, must be defined in terms assembly lines or automated systems. A further advantage of
of their weight, size and surface resilience so that they can be prefabrication in the factory is that the constant conditions allow
easily transported and handled during installation on site (14). each production step to be monitored more closely and meet
higher-quality criteria. The investment costs for factory buildings
and machinery are a disadvantage and must be taken into ac-
count in the prefabricated option.
12
92 PROCESSES
13
Prefabrication of windows
For part of a building to be prefabricated, the design must be capable of being broken down into fabricated units suitable
for factory production.
14
PROCESSES 93
Logistics Installation on site
Logistics are important for construction to proceed smoothly The basis of an efficient installation process is the precise plan-
and efficiently. The required components or modules must be de- ning of the work flow during installation. Every step and compo-
livered exactly on time to avoid unnecessary standing time dur- nent must be considered in advance. The site must be laid out to
ing installation or storage (15). Especially on system building allow unloading and handling of large parts or components with
sites, logistics have to be precisely coordinated with the rapid various options for loading and transport.
pace of the assembly of the components. The higher the degree In an ideal construction process with a high degree of prefab-
of prefabrication, the greater the influence of logistics on the rication, the work on site is reduced to the quick, just-in-time in-
construction programme. Logistics is the tool for saving time stallation of finished components (16), which is carried out, in
and costs on site. The shorter construction time and lesser need ideal circumstances, so simply that it can be performed by very
for temporary storage space of system building processes give little specialist labour (17). The complicated installation proc-
rise to considerable cost reductions for sites where site plant esses should be completed in the prefabrication stage. The risks
and facilities account for a high proportion of the total construc- presented by the changing outdoor conditions for on-site con-
tion costs and on inner city sites in particular. struction can be minimised by the shorter installation times.
There are, of course, parts of the construction process that can-
not normally be carried out by prefabrication. They are the first
and last stages on site, which include the preparation of the site,
foundations and the final interior finishings.
15
94 PROCESSES
Quadrant Homes On-site system
A system does not necessarily have to involve a high degree of the sequence of works for every house to match activities in the
prefabrication. In some systems it may only be necessary to factory. This work flow is organised in the same way on every site
standardise and optimise the construction process on site. US- and depends on an ever-increasing number of identically de-
American housing company Quadrant Homes organises the on- signed houses being built at the same time. The trades move like
site construction of detached houses in a way similar to prefab- an inverse production line by following the production steps
rication in the factory. The smooth work flow is achieved through from house to house.
erecting a large number of houses simultaneously and arranging
16
17
PROCESSES 95
Lean production for modular construction Lean production for component construction
The modular building system of De Meeuw, which is used in Another builder of detached houses, the Daiwa House Group,
particular for offices, schools and hospitals (18), is an example works in accordance with lean production. Design takes place in
of production process with a high proportion of prefabrication in a central design office from where the information is sent to the
accordance with the principles of lean production. The basic factory for prefabrication. In this system, instead of modules, the
idea is to prefabricate modules of the maximum allowable size factory prefabricates components such as frames, roof trusses,
for transport by road. The transport of larger modules requires façade panels, roof panels, ceiling and floor units. Here as well,
special permission, which would entail extra cost and have to the subcontractors are brought into the factory to assemble the
take place at night. Up to 24 modules per day can be produced. prefabricated parts of the loadbearing structure or aluminium
The fabrication cycle is not fixed but adjusted to suit the require- windows and make them ready for further stages of the overall
ments of the site. In accordance with the principles of lean pro- building process. The installation of the various components
duction, the same production line could be used to fabricate dif- takes place in parallel in the factory. The fabrication process is
ferent modular systems, for example MAX 21, Kombi 21 and designed to allow prefabrication of individual variants, so that the
Flexicom, all at the same time. Building services are installed by proportion of standard buildings can be as low as 30 %. The fac-
an external contractor in the same fabrication shop and integrat- tory prefabricates a complete house in only five hours. The pre-
ed into overall finishings installation. The modules are taken from fabricated components are delivered to site and installed there
the factory’s storage area and delivered just-in-time to the site, by specially trained partner companies; internal fittings and do-
where they are installed in the building. The building is then fin- mestic building services are installed by tradesmen to complete
ished by skilled tradesmen on site. the house. Construction on site takes about three months.
a b
d e
96 PROCESSES
Advantages and problems
of systemised processes
The objective of every system development is the optimisation of and, in some countries, a shortage of skilled labour increases the
the construction process. The area of systemisation depends on need in the future for an optimised construction process that will
the initial circumstances and requirements. Systems are most be more cost-efficient than conventional construction process-
successful when short design and construction times are re- es. The most important objective in the development of a system
quired. Most systems have been developed to satisfy these re- building process will be the ability to adapt the system to indi-
quirements. A feature of many systems is the production of a vidual architectural designs. That this has not been adequately
more dependable and consistent quality of building compared implemented in most construction systems in the past has been
with conventional construction methods. It continues to be diffi- the main reason why system building has gained so little accept-
cult to produce a building using an optimised process more ance to date. This potential is only available from computer-aid-
cheaply than using tradesmen and conventional construction ed design systems that are not limited to predetermined forms of
methods. The prospect of continuously rising construction costs construction and components.
18
PROCESSES 97
6 | The Components: Systems, Modules
and Elements
1 2
a a
Primary system
Primary system, consisting of loadbearing walls, which in
turn consist of secondary systems.
Secondary system
Secondary system, consisting of façades, walls,
ceilings, roofs and floors.
11
12
14 15
16
Envelope
Diagram of the modules and elements that surround
the building and perform all the functions of the
building envelope.
17
Example of an envelope
The loadbearing structure is clad with a modular
façade, which fulfils all the functions of the envelope
and is installed storey by storey.
19
20
Building services
21
Diagram of integrated building
services elements in the
building. Example of building services
Installation space: suspended ceiling with ventilation ducts, sprinkler pipes
and electrical cabling.
22
Mega-unit façade
The façade units consist of structural grid width
and storey height façade modules that perform
all the functions of the façade. These units are
prefabricated in the factory and merely installed
on site.
23 24
25 26
27 28
29 30
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
Types of connections
Brickwork (nodal components with linear connections)
at Tate Modern, London, Herzog & de Meuron, 2000;
hollow wood panel construction of homes (planar
components with linear connections) in Oxley Woods,
Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, 2008; and detail of
Stansted Airport roof structure (linear components with
nodal connections), Norman Foster, 1991.
The geometry:
Connections wall – wall frame
Skeletal structure panels
Wall panels „domino“
“Domino” system
The geometry:
wall to wall frame panels „domino“
wall
The to wall
geometry: „domino“
frame panels
wall to wall
40
Wall-to-wall connections
In the basic examples shown here, the connection between two panels can be integrated with
a primary system (the skeletal structure) or be independent of the primary system either with
or without structural qualities. Le Corbusier’s “domino” system, for example, involves a simple
connection between suspended panels, whereas loadbearing framed panels or massive slabs
involve structurally sound connections. Tolerances, fastening strengths and methods vary
accordingly.
1 2 3
1 2 3
1 2 3
41
Beam-to-column connections
The nodal connections between
linear elements, such as two or
more pieces of structural steel,
may be welded, bolted or riveted.
The types of connections depend
ausRolled (open)
gewalzten nurFabricated only
aus gezogenen Mixture of open
Mischung on the analysis of moment, shear
aus gewalzten
sections
(offenen) Profilen nur ausofgezogenen
out drawn
(geschlossenen) Mischung
aussections
offenen and tubes and tensile stresses.
(offenen) Profilen (geschlossenen)
(closed)
Profilen sections
(Rohren) aus offenen
Profielen + Rohren
aus gewalzten Profilen
nur (Rohren)
aus gezogenen Profielen + Rohren
Mischung
(offenen) Profilen (geschlossenen) aus offenen
Profilen (Rohren) Profielen + Rohren
The geometry:
The geometry:
Connections
roof to roof
wall
roof–plane
towall
wall plane
T-beam
Curtain wall
curtain curtain
wall wall T-beams
T-beams
façade
42
Roof-to-wall connections
The way loads between the horizontal and vertical planes
are transferred can ultimately influence the architectural Double-skin
quality of the structure. Steel joists
façade
and beam support
double-skin
double-skin facade facade steel+ joists
steel joists beam+support
beam support
Mechanical systems
The use of prefabricated elements in
mechanical building systems is common
practise.
Interior furnishings
Demountable partitions and furniture allow flexibility of working patterns without exorbitant remodelling costs and hence a
prolonged use of materials.
11
10
12
History and General Documentation Hayden, Dolores McCoy, Esther and Goldstein, Barbara (ed.)
Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Arts & Architecture: The Entenza Years
Baldwin, J. Growth 1820–2000 Columbia Lithograph, Santa Fe Springs,
Bucky Works: Buckminster Fuller’s Ideas for Today Vintage Books, New York, 2003 California, 1990
Wiley & Sons, New York, 1996 (selective reprint of Arts & Architecture from
Head, Peter 1943–1959)
Banham, Reyner “Entering the Ecological Age: The Engineer’s
Theory and Design in the First Machine Age Role”, The Brunel Lecture, London, 2008 “Measures in Japanese Culture”, in:
The Architectural Press, London, 1960 http://www.arup.com/_assets/_ Kansai Window
download/72B9BD7D-19BB-316E- http://www.kippo.or.jp/culture_e/build/measure.html
Banham, Reyner 40000ADE36037C13.pdf
The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Pawley, Martin
Environment The Private Future
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1969 Herbert, Gilbert Random House, New York, 1974
Pioneers of Prefabrication:
Banham, Reyner The British Contribution in the 19th Century Pawley, Martin
“Klarheit, Ehrlichkeit, Einfachkeit … and Wit Too!: The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, “A Prefab Future”, in: Grant, Carol (ed.),
The Case Study Houses in the World’s Eyes”, in: 1978 Built to Last? Reflections on British Housing
Smith, Elisabeth A. T. (ed.), Policy. A Collection of Articles from ROOF
Blueprints for Modern Living: History and Legacy Herbert, Gilbert Magazine
of the Case Study Houses The Dream of the Factory-Made House The Russell Press, Nottingham, 1989 (reprinted in
MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1989, p. 183–196 MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1984 1994), p. 77–84
Bergdoll, Barry and Christensen, Peter Höpfner, Rosemarie and Fischer, Volker (ed.), Phillipson, Mark
Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling commissioned by Dezernat für Kultur und Freizeit, “Defining the Sustainability of Prefabrication and
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Amt für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Stadt Frankfurt Modular Process in Construction”
Birkhäuser, Basel, 2008 am Main Building Research Establishment, Garston, 2003
Ernst May und das Neue Frankfurt 1925–1930 http://projects.bre.co.uk/prefabrication/
Buisson, Ethel and Billard, Thomas Ernst und Sohn, Berlin, 1986 prefabrication.pdf
The Presence of the Case Study Houses
Birkhäuser, Basel, 2004 Jessee, Chris and Rourk, Will Russell, Barry
The Crystal Palace: 3D Modeling Building Systems, Industrialization and
Colomina, Beatriz Institute for Advanced Technology in the Architecture
“Escape from Today: Houses of the Future”, Humanities, University of Virginia, 2001 Wiley & Sons, New York, 1981
in: Vegesack, Alexander von and Eisenbrand, http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/london/model/
Jochen (ed.) Smith, Elizabeth
Open House: Architektur und Technologie für Kaluarachchi, Y. D., Tah, J. H. M. and Howes, R. Case Study Houses
intelligentes Wohnen “The Historical Development of Standardised Taschen, Cologne, 2006
Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, 2007, Building Systems Associated with Social Housing
p. 228–257 in the UK”, in: Journal for Housing Science, vol. 26, Smithson, Alison and Peter
no. 1, 2002, p. 15–26 Changing the Art of Inhabitation
Davies, Colin Artemis London, London, 1994
The Prefabricated Home Kirsch, Karin
Reaktion Books, London, 2005 Die Weißenhofsiedlung: Werkbund-Ausstellung Steinhausen, Ansgar
DIE WOHNUNG Stuttgart 1927 “Plattenbau. Eine architekturhistorische
Futagawa, Yukio (ed.) Deutsche Verlagsanstalt Stuttgart, 1987, 2nd Darstellung”, in: DAM Architektur Jahrbuch
Paul Rudolph: Dessins d’architecture, edition 1999 Prestel, Munich, 1994, p. 25–38
Architekturzeichnungen, Architectural Drawings
Architectural Book Publishing, New York, 1981 Le Corbusier Stevenson, Katherine Cole and Jandl, H. Ward
Toward an Architecture Houses by Mail: A Guide to Houses from Sears,
Garreau, Joel Los Angeles, Getty Research Institute, 2007 Roebuck and Company
Edge City Wiley & Sons, New York, 1986
Doubleday, New York, 1988 McCoy, Esther
Case Study Houses 1945–1962 Vidotto, Marco
Hayden, Dolores Hennessey & Ingalls, Santa Monica, California, Alison and Peter Smithson: Works and Projects
A Field Guide to Sprawl 1977 Ingoprint, Barcelona, 1997
W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2004 (first published in 1962 under the title
Modern California Houses)
A ppendi x 125
Wachsmann, Konrad, Grüning, Michael, Grüning, Mathieu, Renee Wichmann, Hans and Haller, Fritz
Christa and Sumi, Christian “The Prefabricated Housing Industries in the System-Design: Fritz Haller.
Building the Wooden House. United States, Sweden and Japan”, Bauten – Möbel – Forschung
Technique and Design in: Construction Review, July/August 1987 Birkhäuser, Basel, 1989
Birkhäuser, Basel, 1995 (first published in http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3035/
German in 1930) is_v33/ai_5221728/?tag=content;col1 Witthöft, Hans Jürgen
Container. Die Mega-Carrier kommen
Whiteley, Nigel Shelar, Scott Koehler, Hamburg, 2nd edition 2004
The Digital Age: the Fourth Machine Age, 2005 “Labor Shortage Threatening U. S. Construction
http://www.a4a.info/viza/html/v-018-01.html Industry” Wachsmann, Konrad
in: Atlanta Business Chronicle, 1997 Wendepunkt im Bauen
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/ Krausskopf Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1959
Housing stories/1997/09/08/focus17.html
126 appendi x
Boake, Terri Meyer Krieg, Stefan Useful Websites
Unterstanding Steel Design: “Gusseiserne Elementbauten”,
An Architectural Design Manual in: DAM Architektur Jahrbuch Fabprefab – modernist prefab dwellings
Birkhäuser, Basel, 2012 Prestel, Munich, 1994, p. 11–23 http://www.fabprefab.com/fabfiles/fablisthome.htm
Watts, Andrew
Modern Construction Handbook
Springer, Vienna, 2009
Appendix 127
Authors
A ppendi x 129
Index
CAD (Computer Aided Design) 11, 88, 89, 90, Garreau, Joel 119 Maison Citrohan 16–17
118 Gaudí, Antoni 98 Maison Tropicale 31, 31
CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) 88, Geodesic Dome 11, 62, 63, 64 Marmol Radziner and Associates 51
89, 118 George Wimpey Company 27 May, Ernst 19, 19–21, 86
Capsule Hotel, Osaka 49 Ger see Mongolian yurt Mc Donough & Partners 74
Cartwright Pickard Architects 58 Gill, Irving 28 McLuhan, Marshall 15
Case Study House 28–30, 29, 30 Gobaplan 70, 74, 74, 75, 76 Mega-unit façade 103, 105, 105, 107
CD 20 Building System 77, 77 Goldbeck (office building system) 70, 74, 75, 75 Mercedes Benz Museum, Stuttgart 90, 90
CLASP 27 Gorio, F. 23 Middelburg 8, 53
Collins, Penny 43 Granada 9 Midi (building system) 34, 35, 70, 71, 72,
Combined construction 37 Grimshaw, Nicholas 11, 11 72–73, 89
Concrete skeleton 61, 61, 77, 77, 78, 79, 82, Gropius, Walter 15, 17, 20, 21, 21, 33 Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig 21, 22, 42
82, 83, 84 Gugelot, Hans 16 Mitsui 54
Concrete-steel skeleton 61, 61, 74 Modern Modular Housing 43
Conservatorium van Amsterdam 98 Haller, Fritz 34, 35, 70, 71, 73, 89 Modular construction 61, 61, 64, 68, 70
Container 49, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 109, 109 Harvard Allston Science Complex, Boston 122, Modular construction 37, 48
Cross-wall construction 108 122 Modulor 7
Crystal Palace, London 24, 25 Haus Rucker Co. 118 Mongolian yurt 13, 13, 33
Headquarters Q-Cells, Bitterfeld 123 Muji 47, 47
Daiwa House Group 54, 87, 96 Headquarters Unilever, Hamburg 120 Müller, Gerd Alfred 16
De Architekten Cie. 98 Herzog & de Meuron 112 Murray Grove 58
De Meeuw 87, 96, 97, 109 Holland Composite 48, 110
De Vijf 48 Hotel Post, Bezau 49, 49 Nakagin Capsules, Tokyo 49
Dessau-Törten 20, 21 House Burger, Detmold 40 Namba, Kazuhiko 47, 47
Deutscher Werkbund 21, 21 House E. Kaufmann, Andelsbuch 42, 43 Neutra, Richard 28
Dietrich Untertrifaller Architekten 60 House F., Bezau 60
DIY House, San Francisco 47 House of the Future 35, 35
130 appendix
Ohno, Taichi 86 Sagrada Familia, Barcelona 98 Ultra-lightweight 61, 61
Oriental Masonic Gardens, New Haven 36, 36 San Francisco 9, 47 Um House, Ikoma 55, 56
OSB-Platten 40, 41, 51 SAP Call Centre, Galway 123 UN Studio 90
OTH – Ontwerpgroep Trude Hooykaas 73, 73 SBB Training Centre, Löwenberg 71 Uni-Seco (system housing) 26
Oud, Jacobus Johannes Pieter 21 Schindler, Rudolph 28 USM Haller 34–35, 70
Oxley Woods, Milton Keynes 57, 58, 58, 112 Schütte-Lihotzky, Margarete 20, 20
Sears, Roebuck and Co. 17, 18 Valentine (Olivetti typewriter) 16
Packaged House 33, 33, 34 Secondary system 87, 98, 99, 100, 100, 101, Valori, M. 23
Parco Homes 9, 52 105, 106, 107, 110, 111 Volkswagen factory 15
Pawley, Martin 16, 57 Sekisui Chemical 54 Vorarlberg 11, 12, 59–60
Paxton, Joseph 24, 25 Simpson Strong-Tie 44, 44
Piano, Renzo 11 SIP composite panel 41, 41 Wachsmann, Konrad 33, 33–34, 34
Platform frame construction 38, 39 Skidmore, Owings and Merrill 119 Wagner, Martin 18, 19
Portal House 26 Slab construction 22, 23, 37, 40, 41 Warhol, Andy 7
Post-and-beam construction 42, 100, 103 Slavik, Han 109 Waterloo Station, London 11, 11
Slimline (floor system) 74, 74 Weißenhofsiedlung Stuttgart 15, 19, 21, 21, 22,
Primary system 87, 98, 99, 100, 101, 105, 109- Smithson, Alison and Peter 35, 35, 36 29, 42
111, 113 Soccer City Stadium, Johannesburg 10 Wichita House 33, 33
Prouvé, Jean 31, 31 Sorest, Toyota Homes 54 Wimpey No-Fines System 27
Pruitt-Igoe, St. Louis 23 Sottsass, Ettore 16 Wimpey see George Wimpey Company
Spacebox, Delft 48, 110 Windermere, Forsyth County 50
Quadrant Homes 9, 50, 95 Spillmann Echsle Architekten 68 Wood frame construction 26, 41, 42, 51
Stansted Airport 112 Wood panel construction 113
Residential development, Ypenburg, Steel frame structure 22, 26, 29, 29, 54, 61, Woonhof De Dolphijn, Middelburg 53
The Hague 108 65, 68 Wright, Frank Lloyd 28
Richmond Hall, Houston, Texas 8 Sterbini, G. 23
Ridge tent 62 Stick-building method 9, 45 Yurt see Mongolian yurt
RKW Architektur + Städtebau 117 Stick frame construction 17, 39, 50, 51
Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners 57, 58, 58, 112 Superstudio 118 Zehrfuss, Bernard 22
Rogers, Richard 76, 76–77 SU-SI House, Reuthe 59 Zendome 62, 63
Romero, Rocio 51, 51 System Occident 18
Ronan Point 28 Page numbers in italics refer to images.
Rudolph, Paul 35, 36, 36 Tarran (system housing) 26
Ruf, Albert 49 Tatami house 14
Tatami mat 7, 14, 14, 54
Tate Modern, London 31, 112
Taut, Bruno 21
Team X 35
Temple Street Parking Garage, New Haven
36, 36
Tent systems 62, 62, 63
Timber frame construction 26, 41, 54
Toyoda, Eiji 50, 86
Toyota Homes 9, 54
Trailer homes 49
Train station, Detmold 18
Transsolar 123
Turner, Huw 43
A ppendi x 131
Illustration Credits
A ppendi x 133
Façades
Principles of Construction
Ulrich Knaack; Tillmann
Klein; Marcel Bilow;
Thomas Auer
Introduction on the principles of faade design and construction for
practitioners and students
ISBN 978-3-7643-7962-9
Facade Construction
Manual
Thomas Herzog; Roland
Krippner; Werner Lang
This new first edition of the Facade Construction Manual provides a
systematic survey of contemporary expertise in the application of new
materials and energy- efficient technologies in facade design, and rep-
resentsan invaluable addition to our series of Construction Manuals.
ISBN 978-3-7643-7109-8
Constructing Architecture
Materials, Processes,
Structures, A Handbook
Andrea Deplazes, ETH
Zurich, Switzerland (Ed.)
Combining creativity and technical expertise: an integral
approach to design and construction
ISBN 978-3-7643-7189-0
Birkhäuser
P.O. Box
CH-4009 Basel